The World's Great Assembly (1851)

[Editorial note: the following transcription contains the page numbers in the original in the following form: [1/2] marks the end of page 1 and beginning of page 2.]

The world is growing old. Yet no country has ever had so many foreign
eyes looking upon her closely as old England will now have. Eyes that have
looked on the snows of Siberia, the forests of Norway, and the vineyards of
Spain; on the minarets of Constantinople, and the domes of Rome, and the
pyramids of Cairo; on the leisurely flow of the Ganges, the mighty roll of
the Amazon, and the tremendous falls of the St. Lawrence; eyes that have
watched the lion in tropical forests, and the whale in Polar seas; that
have seen the ant — like multitudes of China, and the drear solitudes of
African sand; that have witnessed the cannibal festival in Polynesian
Isles, and the slave mart on Ethiopian shores, and the carnival in the
brilliant cities of Italy, and the gala in the polished capital of France;
eyes familiar with every aspect of nature, and every type of religion, and
every variety of barbarism, and every grace of civilization, and every
stage of art, and every form of government, will soon be busy here gazing
upon England.

[1/2] The politician, eager to ascertain the secret of her stability; the
merchant, athirst to find out the springs of her wealth; the patriot,
instinct with the ambition of transplanting her freedom; the libertine,
resolved to know if the reputed virtue of her homes is only an adroiter
mask; the Mussulman, who never saw Christianity before, but in its
connexion with the worship of images; the Romanist, curious to discover the
real aspect of Protestantism: presently, all these will have their eyes
inquisitively fixed on England, and no doubt will scan and scrutinize the
life — springs of her moral and national existence. The palace of glass will
be much, the wonders it contains will be much; but be assured of one thing,
that, whatever may be the case with out own countrymen, to all foreigners
England and the English will be the great exhibition of 1851.

Never was there a time, when such an assembly as that now gathering on our
shore, would have brought with it such an intense curiosity respecting
ourselves. Europe has just passed through a frightful series of
convulsions, in the midst of which, England has stood erect in hale
composure. The attention of all the inquiring men of the age has been fixed
on that spectacle. The two great men, whom the first shock of the
revolution most directly affected, have both come here, both observed us,
both [2/3] returned to the continent, and published their judgment on the
secret of our strength. Guizot, whom the revolution cast down, and
Lamartine, whom it lifted up, have both told the world that England owes
her pre — eminence, which all nations have envied, to her religion. This has
not been lost on the active spirits, who, all over the continent, are
pondering the great problem, how to make happy their fatherlands. Many of
them who never studied religion as a matter of personal salvation, are now
studying it as an engine of national improvement. Many of them will look
closely to all that indicates the faith we feed upon, and the character
which it imparts to us. We shall feel emulous as to the reputation of our
artizans; but how little is our real honour involved in a specimen English
machine, compared with what it is in a specimen English heart. And every
foreigner that peers about our streets, will take each man, of whose
character he happens to see any development, as a specimen of what we are.
O that all those specimens were such as would either do us honour, or teach
them wisdom! But, alas! What scenes will they witness! Our streets by
night, our lanes by day, our gin — palaces by night and by day, what
testimonies will these utter? Alas! alas! that amid privileges so
distinguished, we should have drunkenness reeling before our eyes, and
prostitution walking gaily! Then all the worst is sure to [3/4] be seen. It
is the character of vice in English cities, that it is disgustingly
conspicuous. A stranger might wander through the streets of Paris for a
week, and imagine that he was in a city remarkably correct and blameless.
Here our public — houses glare with light; our theatres are opened frequently
by the immodest; and the nightly disorder of our streets is undisguised.
Thus, the scenes calculated to diminish the moral influence of England,
will be universally exhibited. On the other hand, few, very few
comparatively, will have any means of looking into families, or of
watching, in private life, the operation of christian principles. The
scenes calculated to win moral influence for England will be exhibited to
few. All who desire to see Europe in repose, and Africa in progress, and
Asia in renovation, and America free from the slave stain in the north, and
from superstition in the south; all who desire to see christian truth and
christian happiness spread throughout the world, must feel that to these
ends there is not, at this moment, one single element more important under
God, than that the moral influence of England be conserved and augmented.
To strengthen our moral influence, is to invigorate every labourer in God's
good cause throughout the world; and to impair it, is to enfeeble them all.
Englishmen! you have now a great test, and a great opportunity. You will be
weighed in the balance of the nations.

[4/5]Ye that feel the importance of the crisis, be busy with those who do
not. Tell the shop — keeper, he must think on our national name, in dealing
with our guests. Tell all classes, how reeling intemperance will brand us
with the disgrace of inconsistency, before the Romanist of southern Europe,
or the Mussulman of the Levant. Teach many, to cry shame on all who would
stain the fair fame of England, in the eye of the stranger. Infuse into the
common people a desire to wear gentle manners, and to show rather the
courtesy of hosts, than the liberty of scrutineers. Despair not of
effecting anything. Purpose a work for the glory of God, for the honour of
religion, for the good of mankind; and then, in the Lord's good strength,
go forth and do it. You will not wholly fail. You may effect wonders. You
shall not work in vain.

In one great feature of our national life we may hope especially to impress
the stranger. It is something for men to see the eager haste of English
commerce reined in, and standing mute before the ordinance of God's holy
day. It is something for them to see our streets that yesterday teemed with
traders, to — day, at one moment hushed and lonely; at another thronged
again, but with worshippers now. It is a sight to tell the man who never
saw the like, that, There is a God in England. O may that sight move many a
heart to remember the Redeemer's [5/6] cross and shame, and to seek his rest
in heaven! But oh! how hatefully do the drinking crowds in the gin — palaces
contrast with the assemblies of christian worshippers! And how pitifully do
the low markets, in the bye — places, deform the beauty of God's holy day!
Remember that your Sabbath is one of the most powerful — ay, perhaps the
most powerful — of all the means to be employed, for acquiring moral
influence among our visitors. Remember, too, that during their stay, the
sanctity of the sabbath will run special risks. And oh! by every sacred
motive, urge your neighbours to respect the Lord's day, and call on God to
avert, by his own silent ways of working, desecrations and offences.

But who are these, whom curiosity convenes on our shores? Here, you have
the disciples of the Veda, the Koran, the Zend Avesta, and the Bible. Here,
those who accredit the Bible and conceal it — those who accredit it and set
it on high. Moving amid the mass of visages coloured by temperate climes,
you see some on whom the hue of Africa is stamped. Think of their
fatherland, and think of yours. What a difference between the birthright of
two men — the one having an English, the other an African, birth! Think of
that wide continent, and of all the woes under which it weeps and writhes;
of the cold harsh Islamism, that rules the north, the wild and sanguinary
superstitions, that over — [6/7] spread the habitable parts of its centre,
the frightful slavedrain, that exhausts its life's blood around the coast,
and the wars, that waste its brightest point of hope in the south. Men will
tell you that the law of human society is progress; that, as years elapse,
intellect marches, manners ameliorate, and institutions grow benign. Look
at Africa. As many summers have shone on the plains of Dahomy and Ashantee,
as on those of Britain. Yet men worship the Fetish, and kings dwell in
palaces girt with walls of human skulls, and all enterprise is merged in
kidnapping and selling men! Ah! years alone have not made England a land of
quiet homes, of order by day, of security by night, of freedom, and
intelligence, and domestic happiness. Had years alone done it, Africa would
have had all this amelioration too. Again, you see some whose Asiatic
costume bespeaks them the natives of the far East. And these men, from the
banks of the Ganges and Cauvery, have an interest in England. They
represent one hundred and fifty millions of our fellow — subjects. In the
lands they come from, letters were cultivated when England was a wild.
Their fathers dressed in silks and muslins, when ours wore shaggy hides.
They calculated eclipses, when the first book by a Briton was unpenned. Yet
whilst we sit here queenly among states, bright amongst the lights of
religion and of science, binding bonds of brotherhood [7/8] with all
mankind, the people of those magnificent Asiatic nations are ruled by a
handful of strangers; they are backward in knowledge and in arts; they are
worshipping oxen, and kites, and snakes, and monkeys, and a pantheon of
disgusting gods; they are so shut off from each other by partitions of
caste, that two neighbours of equal education and fortune dare not eat at
one board; and their family life is so chilled, that in all their wide
lands, you could not find one husband and wife seated together at the same
meal! No, no, England! it is not time that has made thee what thou art, or
Benares would be loftier far than London. It is Christ's good gospel, and
on thee it lies to give that unspeakable boon to the idolatrous Hindu!

Again, you see, chequering the European crowd, a few that, without the
impress of Africa or India, bear plain tokens that they are not of the
north or the west. That black eastern eye, has but little of the ancient
fire of Islam, but a child of Islam is there. We tremble not at the name
now. The keen edge of the once magic scimitar has long been blunted. But
what a chapter in the religious history of nations does that dread people
leave recorded. The church of Christ had fallen. She had sunk into worldly
mindedness; she had added human merit and mediation to the one atonement,
as the ground of a sinner's hope; she had filled her churches [8/9] with
images. Then, from the depths of pagan Arabia, rose a wild and frantic
voice denouncing all idolatry; and the world was enforced at the point of
the murderous scimitar. On the idolatrous Christianity of Asia, on the
idolatrous Christianity of Europe, that terrific stroke descended. O what
death and desolation! What years and years of black, black woe, following
those times of apostacy! Englishmen, there is a voice for you in Islam. Let
our nation corrupt Christianity by image worship, and from the arsenals of
Providence will gleam another scimitar.

And that Mohammedan is a man of like passions, an heir of the fall, a
sinner like me. We both expect a resurrection trump, and a righteous
judgment — day. We both believe that sin is offensive to God, and our actions
are noted down for retribution. It is enough to make us both hold our
breath for very awe. It is enough to make us, even amid the hurry of the
Great Exhibition, turn away from its crowds and its wonders, and, lifting
our hearts to the great God who has seen all our sins, cry to him, "God be
merciful to me." O how sweetly does a voice proclaim, "God is in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, — not imputing their trespasses unto
them." Christ has made a full, perfect, and sufficient atonement,
satisfaction, and oblation for our sins. I turn to Him. [9/10] He stands
accepted before the Father. He stands pleading for me. Him "God hath set
forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, for the remission
of sins that are past." His blood speaks. It is enough; I may put all faith
in it. That plea will not fail. The Father hears it; and his voice of mercy
proclaims the remission of sins that are past. "We have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

But those from Africa or Asia are few. The nations of Europe form the mass.
These men come from lands adjacent to our own, yet how different their lot
from ours. There are the children of the splendid southern climes.
Italians! if the glow of the sun, the smile of the sky, the jocund vintage,
the charm of poetry, the spell of art, the enchantment of music, the grace
of manners, the pride of ancient traditions, the pomp of state, or the
skill of priestcraft, could exalt a nation, how would you look down from on
high upon the sons of the new, northern land to which you are come. But no;
you lie down there in the dust, and national calamities walk over you.
Italy wants what England enjoys — a better inspiration than that of art,
and a better guide than that of priestcraft. All the gospels that men
preach have been tried — civilization, and arts, and learning; but God's
holy word, the gospel of heaven's preaching, has been diligently shut out.
Let that in, and [10/11] see, in a generation or two, whether Italy will
wallow, as she wallows now.

There, again, is the Spaniard. How splendid his nation was, before it had
finally rejected and extinguished the dawning light of the reformation! How
poor, and smitten, and mean, has that nation since become! His neighbour,
too, the Portuguese, how exactly has he run the same career, from power,
wealth, and vast possessions, to insignificance abroad and bloodshed at
home. And then there are the sprightly sons of France. How much their land
has lost and suffered within the last hundred years! and how is it
suffering now, and panting after rest! France has had its own peculiar
gospel — civilization. This it has believed, and preached, and live by. Its
fruits have been a whole progeny of new institutions; but, alas! it has
left the old men and the old misery. New institutions are very valuable,
when they are the offspring of new men. But leaving men what you find them,
and making new institutions, in the hope that they will make new men, is
like making handsome boots for cripples, and expecting them to work a cure.
If new institutions were the way to happiness, oh! what an Elysium would
Paris be at the present moment! No, no; you must find a power that will
make new hearts. From these alone can weal to a community spring. Every man
who is regenerated becomes a centre, from which all the influences of
virtue [11/12] radiate through the community, preparing men, perhaps
unconsciously to themselves, to be ashamed of old vices, and to proceed to
new attainments. A hundred holy men in a town make the way silently, but
surely, for new and ameliorated institutions. Wherever a dozen men in
France, are turned from their sins, to the love and service of the Lord
Jesus, a greater work is done for the future repose and advancement of
their country, than when a tyranny is overthrown, and a new order of
institutions inaugurated.

Here, also, we see men, in great numbers, with tokens at once of Europe and
of other realms. They are children of European blood, but of Columbian
soil. Sons of the Spaniard, the Portuguese, the Frenchman, and the
Anglo — Saxon. But amongst all the vast territories which they divide between
them in the new world, those alone that belong to the latter, witness the
safety, the light, the order, the progress, and the repose which denote a
prosperous State. How strange that, though wise men try to build up a
stable policy, on a religion that shuts out God's free word, yet, be it
with the absolutism of Italy, or the constitutionalism of Spain, or the
republicanism of South America, such nations do not find tranquillity and
strength.

But why all this concourse? Why have men left homes so distant and
sacrificed their ordinary avocations, and incurred heavy expenses? [12/13]
Why! the man would have little soul indeed, who would not desire to see
such a sight as England now presents. When the art of the north and the
south, of the west and the east, are to be displayed, who would not be
there to gaze and to admire. It is natural, highly natural. And surely one
is gladdened to see how all earth's contents are made beautiful or useful
by skill. That majestic palace of iron and glass! Awhile ago, its pillars
were coarse rude particles, clodded together in some deep recess of the
earth, and its transparent plates were sandy masses, without beauty or
coherence. How a little fire and a little art have changed them! And these
vile bodies that we bear — they, too, may be wonderfully ennobled; and that
dust of the dead, around us, what form of more than crystal purity may it
not put on, after the great fire that is coming has done its work of
renovation. And see how the sand, the clay, the stone — so dull, so cold,
by nature — have been transformed into ornaments, that make man's home
brilliant, or to uses that make his purpose easy. And the dull metals make
sweet music, and the tame wood assumes a hundred admirable positions of
service; and the cold of the poles, nurses luxurious furs; and the heat of
the equator, fosters delicate silk and versatile cotton; and the elephant
sends his ivory; and bird, and fish, and air, and sea, are all ministering
to our abundance; and water and [13/14] fire, yoked to our cars, bear us over
the earth, fleet as the wind; and inert metal, marches side by side with
Time, echoing in audible tone, its every footfall, and trumpeting the end
of every stage. Oh, 'tis indeed wonderful, how God gives man skill to make
an inheritance of all things — see the mightiest beasts his docile
servants; the most stubborn metals his instrument or his ornament; the
winds driving his treasures from the farthest lands; the lightning running
his errands; the sea — sand bringing hidden stars up out of the depth to meet
his eye; and the poison — plant his medicine. It makes one's heart throb, to
see how divine goodness thus endows our human family. But oh! to think of
that future state, coming so close upon us, when the sons of God shall
indeed "inherit all things", their Father's wisdom and power, calling every
element of a new heaven and a new earth, to uncover all its capacity for
enriching their pleasures or adorning their homes! Oh! that I may be one of
those who share that inheritance; for surely it is pitiful to stand in a
world so well replenished as this, and seeing all its abundance, shiver and
say, "and I perish of hunger;" but how much more pitiful to open the eye,
and behold, far off, the wealth and the joy of the better country, and yet
be impoverished for ever, — —

Alas! beholding heaven, but feeling hell!

[14/15] And as you pass from trophy to trophy, and from wonder to wonder, do
you not feel that you would like to see the man that invented this
astonishing machine, or executed that wonderful piece of art? It is
natural, when you witness an exquisite work, to desire an acquaintance with
its author. Wonderful minds, wonderful hands, that planned and wrought
these things! Yes, very wonderful. And who planned and made these minds and
these hands? If the works of these minds and hands are worth studying, what
of the Author of these minds and hands — of the One from whose sole will
all this wisdom, and beauty, and power, and order have sprung? Oh! Source
of all mind, and skill, and glory, let me know thee! Shut me not out from
thy fellowship here, nor deny me hereafter the sight that exceeds all
sights — the sight, O matchless God, of thee!

That marvel palace! how splendidly it rose! how wealthily it is stored! how
vast and how diversified the throngs that surge around it! And yet, but
yesterday that peerless structure was not: and a few short years ago, you
might have called throughout all the universe, and of those thoughtful men,
those lively women, those sportive children, not one was there to answer.
They, too, were not. They have come forth from the hidden depths of the
Creator's hand. Yet a little while, and again they will not be. Then, yet a
little while, and once more they [15/16] will come forth, and the nations
they belong to, and the fathers that went before them, and the children
that shall come after; forth they will stand, multitude on multitude, an
array awful exceedingly. And a great white throne, and a King of glory, and
ten thousand angels of God, and trumps, and thunders, and dissolving
worlds, will make that sight to overpass all the thoughts which rise within
us at the expectation of it. And I shall be there to see! Nay, rather to
feel; for the interests at stake then, will make me not a spectator, but
one involved in the deeds of the day. O God! Three — one, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, prepare me for that day, and make it a joyful day to me!